This post was originally posted on Facebook here.
‘Looking at your own direct immediate experience and not being able to find a separate self – this exercise or practice or so-called ‘investigation’ has nothing to do with genuine self-inquiry.‘
Looking at your own direct immediate experience and not being able to find a separate self – this exercise or practice or so-called ‘investigation’ has nothing to do with genuine self-inquiry.
Many times I have seen how this teaching leads to confusion and dullness of mind, and actually ensnares you in a belief system called ‘non-duality’ or ‘there is no self’ or ‘there is no person, there is no one here’. These stock phrases are said by a body-mind entity and can create a belief system in the mind that leads you away from the genuine non-dual realisation.
AN EXPLANATION
It is just like saying ‘can you in your direct and immediate experience find air?’, and when you (in this example) cannot find air or see it or touch it or feel it, then you can triumphantly exclaim ‘there is no air!’.
If this was believed, then this would mean you have now entered into a conceptual belief system, and one that is not in line with reality, and therefore needs constant reinforcement and leads to confusion about how to live and act in the world.
Or it is like saying can you find loyalty in your direct experience? No? That means there is no such thing as loyalty! Or can you find a proton or electron in your own direct experience? No? This means you have now discovered there are no protons or electrons! Of course, this kind of exploration and investigation is superficial, non-scientific, irrational and ultimately absurd.
Like loyalty, a separate self cannot always be found in one’s own direct experience, but it emerges in relationship, in daily life and through actions. Merely saying ‘I cannot find my/a separate self’ and repeatedly coming back to this practice/inquiry, will not lead to genuine liberation at all. Whilst it does involve observation and seeing, it is a mental practice as its conclusion is in the mind; ironically it is egoic, as it is for the mind.
SEPARATE SELF KEEPS ON COMING BACK! (WITH THE FLAWED TEACHINGS)
Because the sense of separate self emerges during relationship and actions, it keeps on popping up again, leading the seeker to frustration – why at one point could they (allegedly*) see there was no self, but at another point self keeps on coming back to them again, causing them suffering?
(*If no ego-self was truly ‘seen’, it never comes back again. If ego comes back again, that means it never really went away, and that it was the ego claiming there was no ego all along)
OTHER SIMILARLY FLAWED TEACHINGS
This flawed teaching is similar to other forms of so-called ‘enquiry’ that conclude ‘all is consciousness’ after simply noticing that all they can be conscious of is consciousness, or all objects (that you are conscious of) appear within consciousness. This cannot be a proof that all there is is consciousness – it is merely proof that all you are aware of is within your own awareness, or all that you are conscious of is within your own consciousness, which is self-evident but which tells us nothing about reality per se. Again, this is superficial, irrational and flawed logic.
All is consciousness, but this is only known through a genuine self-enquiry.
More than this, this kind of so-called ‘enquiry’ will also take you away from a genuinely liberating teaching that leads one to genuine discovery of the actual non-dual truth (that is far deeper and also far simpler, more natural and more intuitive than these kinds of superficial, and ultimately conceptual/intellectual, teachings).
SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI SETS US ON THE CLEAR PATH
This is why genuine teachers such as Sri Ramana never gave these kinds of teachings at all. Instead, he always advised we turn our attention inwards, away from phenomenal and objective appearances, towards the sense of self or ‘I am’, the subject, and thereby discover the non-dual truth that we actually, already always are.
See in the text he wrote called ‘The essence of instruction‘ (Upadesa Saram), in verse 16 he writes:
’16. It is true wisdom for the mind to turn away from outer objects and behold its own effulgent form.’
See how he makes the teaching simple and clear!
WHAT ABOUT VERSE 17?
Now in verse 17, the next verse, there is a teaching which is often misunderstood. People do not usually realise that he explains what the actual meaning of verse 17 is in verse 18 and 19. He writes in verse 17:
’17. When unceasingly the mind scans its own form there is nothing of the kind. For everyone this path direct is open’
Whilst this verse seems to be an endorsement of the very teaching I’m saying here is not a genuine teaching, we can see in the next two verses he explains what verse 17 really means. In the next two verses, in verses 18 and 19, Ramana Maharshi explains the meaning of verse 17, namely that one must find the source of the ego and not simply say ‘I cannot find any separate self here’.
What is the source of the ego? It is the self, the subject, as he is already explained in verse 16 and in other verses in the same text.
(For brevity I will not quote all the verses here in this post, as you can easily look at them up yourselves here. The entire text of Upadesa Saram is only 30 verses long.)
THE TRUE TEACHING
The teaching is always to turn within, to turn away from objects, and sink and merge the mind into the Self, the pure subject, thereby attain liberation/self-knowledge. The point of a question such as the question ‘who am I?’, is only to drive one’s attention inwards towards the subject, as he is explained in his writings and verbal teachings.
Sri Ramana Maharshi assures us that this is the essential teaching when he says in The Garland of Guru’s Sayings (Guru Vachaka Kovai) verse 291:
- For those who seek eternal life the assurance stands: the senses five retracted tortoise-like, the mind turned homeward to the self and there abiding is pure bliss.
He also chides those who teach these intellectual teachings, who have never turned within and discovered their true nature:
- The innocent girl-bride thinking that betrothal is full conjugal union is filled with joy. Even so the learned who have yet to turn within and taste true bliss claim that the verbal wisdom which they prattle is Advaita Jnana (non-dual knowledge)
For an easy to read but comprehensive overview of the true teaching I recommend this book which you can download for free here, or alternatively check out my recommended reading list and/or introductory articles on the homepage of the same website:
Here are some more quotes from Sri Ramana Maharshi, also taken from Guru Vachaka Kovai (click here to download the entire text for free):
391. Those who do not dive into the Heart
And there confront the Self in the five sheaths hid
Are only students answering out of books
Clever questions raised by books,
And not true seekers of the Self.
835. Renouncing this phenomenal world
Which seems to, but does not, exist
We gain (the great ones say) the Self,
The Awareness shining all unseen.
See here for more verses like the ones above together with a guided meditation.
May we listen to Bhagavan’s teachings and thereby become one with him, discovering our own self, our own glorious true nature, which is found within, shining in the heart as I Am, I Am.
🙏🙏🙏
♥️ Om Namo Bhagavate Sri Arunachala Ramanaya Om ♥️
🙏🙏🙏
Tom Das 